In early April 2023, Havells India entered into an agreement with Swedish company BLIXT to introduce solid state circuit breaker (SSCB) technology to the Indian subcontinent. T&D India caught up with Vivek Yadav, Executive Vice President, Havells India, to know more about this partnership and the revolutionary SSCB technology. In an exclusive interview, Vivek Yadav tells Venugopal Pillai that though the technology is still nascent, even in the international market, the potential of SSCB is immense considering that it can provide multiple functionalities in a single device.
Tell us more about the partnership with BLIXT. Is it financial or technical? Will the partnership be exclusive for Havells India?
BLIXT, as you are aware, is a Swedish tech start-up, working on technology for solid-state circuit breakers for long years. Havells and BLIXT have natural partnership to take this new technology to users.
At the moment, it is a technical JV for the Indian subcontinent. The commercial partnership will happen subsequently; we have kept it open-ended for the moment.
Our objective for the next 18-24 months is to introduce the new technology to customers and generate use cases enabling mass production in times to come.
Is BLIXT the only player equipped with solid state circuit breaker (SSCB) technology?
This technology is still very nascent, even in the international market. As of now, there is no company that is taking product commercially to customers. All technologies available, even with reputed players, are still at the R&D stage. There is no company today that has a commercially available SSCB that readily go to the market.
Basically, how does this solid-state technology work, and how it is fundamentally different from the conventional electromechanical technology seen in today’s circuit breakers?
In an electromechanical breaker (present technology), there are a number of parts – around 42 of them! Whenever there is a fault in the circuit, the breaker breaks the current path and there is an arc flash that is quenched in the arc chutes. This is the way a normal circuit breaker function, put in simple terms.
Now, in a solid state breaker there are no mechanical parts at all; absolutely, no mechanical parts!
The current path is broken electronically, which means that there is no arc produced at all. This is most important. It means that there is no energy released (within the circuit breaker) during the current interruption. This results in much less energy loss.
When there is no arc and no “let-through” energy, the capex of the customer can reduce. For instance, the cross-sectional area of the cable required to handle the load can be reduced.
Would you be manufacturing these SSCBs in India, ultimately, after the initial two-year period?
Yes. The BLITX team who visited us was very happy seeing our manufacturing and R&D capabilities. Their expectations of our manufacturing capabilities were surpassed! Our agreement envisages that manufacturing of these SSCBs will take place at the manufacturing sites of Havells, which will be discussed at a later stage. We have exclusive rights for the Indian subcontinent. At the same time, we can also export to other countries.
How would SSCBs compare conventional breakers in terms of capital cost and lifecycle costs?
I would say that it is very early to comment on the commercial costs. Comparison with the existing MCBs would not be fair because this breaker technology is not just for short-circuit and overload protection. SSCB technology will also incorporate several other devices like earth-leakage prevention, Also, because it is an electronic device, you can reclose the circuit remotely.
Even if I assume no commercial production of mass scale – only production at the level of customized products – the cost would be comparable. If you compare the cost of arc-fault protection, RCCB/ELCB, MCB and auto-reclosure together, it (SSCB) will be cheaper even today!
Once we have commercial use-cases and volumes, I think it will be still be a winner.
Are you suggesting that conventional MCBs have the potential for widespread replacement by SSCBs?
If you see the current trends, even globally, all MCBs are getting upgraded. One can see growing instances where consultants and end-users are demanding that they need arc-fault detection device and RCCB/RCBO at the last circuit point. If you put an RCCB/ELCB in the main in-comer, one fault in one corner of the installation will mean that the incomer will be tripped. It will be nuisance tripping in other areas as well.
Eventually, as I see, every MCB along with other breaker application will get replaced by this solid-state circuit breaker.
Do you see the deployment of SSCB in the retrofit market or in greenfield application?
Initially, I would see only new-build applications. Only as the volumes build up and the costs start coming down, can we address the replacement market.
Do you foresee application of solid-state circuit breakers in the residential market?
Today, circuit protection is generally provided by an MCB in a distribution board. There are some high-current applications where we use lower fault-level breaker, for instance in air-conditioners, geysers, etc. That is actually a little overkill – it is not needed. You need protection at the circuit level at the distribution board only. But there are some current-leakage protection devices that need to be localized. In that sense, we will find a lot of use cases in the times to come.
